It has long been known in the field of dental hygiene, for example, that it is important to remove food particles, tartar, and plaque from the teeth at least once a day. The removal of such dental contaminants may be accomplished by various means such as by brushing, water spray or the use of dental floss.
Dental floss is conventionally held in the hands and manipulated by the fingers. The floss is inserted between two adjacent teeth, or looped partially around a single tooth and pulled or pushed back and forth against the tooth to remove the food particles, tartar and plaque. This procedure requires a certain amount of manual dexterity and also requires the flosser to insert his or her fingers into the mouth.
A variety of mechanical devices have been developed to aid in the use of dental floss. Among these are devices consisting of a forked or U-shaped handle. In these devices a length of dental floss is tautly stretched between the two tines of a device. The device is manipulated from outside the mouth so as to draw the dental floss up and down against the surface of the tooth to be cleaned. Examples of such devices are found in Schiff U.S. Pat. No. Des 251,074 and the Yafai U.S. Pat. No. 4,304,246. In the latter, the floss is in the form of a loop which is stretched around the device.
In another flossing device, illustrated and described in the Wyss U.S. Pat. No. 5,123,432, parallel handles have a floss loop extending through them and interconnected across opposite ends. The handles are spaced at their mid-points by a spacer member which forms a fulcrum. The handles are manipulated by squeezing them at one end so that they pivot in a plane about the fulcrum and draw the floss tight at one end (the flossing end). In lieu of the spacer member illustrated, the handles may be manipulated in the same manner about a fulcrum formed by the flosser's finger.
In yet another flossing device, illustrated and described in the Braqg U.S. Pat. No. 3,799,177, the use of two separate handles is shown. A length of floss is stretched between the corresponding working ends of the handles and flossing accomplished by manipulating the other ends separately.
The above devices have shortcomings, however. First, the devices do not allow a continuous, movable loop of floss or other flexible element to be positioned or manipulated from any point in space. Furthermore, these devices do not allow the controlled manipulation of the floss element within the confines of very small volumes, such as in the rear of the mouth.